Tomatos and cold weather
My tomatoes and I were relieved when the cold wave passed and our low only dropped to 37 degrees. No frost!
Figuring
it was better to be safe than sorry, I covered each tomato plant with a
five-gallon bucket on Friday night, then removed each bucket first
thing Saturday morning so the plants wouldn't cook or dwindle from lack
of light. Most of the plants fit into their buckets well, but the
large plant from Daddy (first photo in this post) had to be carefully
constrained before I could cram it into a bucket, and my Stupice (our
earliest producer most years, photo below) also had to have the top bent
down a bit. Hopefully both plants will bounce right back.
On a related note, my
father was surprised that the plants he'd set outside a couple of months
ago didn't make early fruits even though they were large and in a
sheltered location where it wouldn't frost. I explained that
tomatoes tend to drop most or all of their flowers when nights dip below
55 degrees Fahrenheit. This isn't quite the same as a critical temperature,
because one chilly night won't generally make a tomato drop
fruits. Instead, a string of cold weather slows the pollen so much
that it doesn't travel up the style fast enough to fertilize the ovary
within the requisite fifty hours, at which point the plant drops the
flower as a loss.
Despite the current
cool-down, at least one of my tomatoes managed to set a few fruits, as
you can see in the photo above. I'm curious about whether my
Stupice (an early ripener) started inside on February 26 can beat
Daddy's tomato (started inside in January, I think). And will
either plant's head start really make them beat my usual first-tomato
date of early to mid July?
Want to grow the earliest tomato? Check out this guest post from one of our readers for expert advice.
Or explore more posts by date or by subject.
About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
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Hi Anna, I have a question that does not relate per se to this post, but you have been so generous with your knowledge in answering my questions in the past I thought I would give it a shot. I live in lower Michigan. My husband just finished building a large trellis. I am going to try hardy kiwi growing up the trellis, but recently I have realized some hanging pots would work well there too. Do you have any recommendations for perennial edibles that would grow well in pots and are not hardy to Michigan? I would like to expand the variety of garden plants in order to make it a worthwhile experiment. I would appreciate it if you know of any plants that are on your radar and would fit the bill. Thanks for your help.